The economic and financial crisis is accelerating a longer-term structural transformation in the global economy, with the aggregate economic weight of developing and emerging economies on the verge of surpassing that of the countries that currently make up the advanced world, according to new analysis from the OECD Development Centre.

Is South America cursed by its natural resources? Does China’s penetration of the region renew the region’s comparative advantage in natural resources? Does South America’s trade specialisation stand in the way of regional integration? This paper tries to answer these questions.

The Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) is a new composite measure of gender equality, based on the OECD Development Centre’s Gender, Institutions and Development Database. Launched in March 2009, it complements and improves existing measures in several ways.

There is an increasing concern in the development community about the increase in the ‘feminisation of bad jobs’ of many developing countries. Indeed, recent analysis shows a growing proportion of women are in jobs with poor working conditions and low pay. But what is driving this phenomenon?

The shift in global goods production towards Asia is well documented. But global consumer demand has so far been concentrated in the rich economies of the OECD. Will that also shift towards Asia as these countries get richer?

Past studies focused on aggregate country data but a sector analysis provides a better picture of fragmentation. We start by counting the number of aid projects in the developing world and find that, in 2007, more